Now consider the angry customer sharing his pain at the pump with the attendant (“I get griped out every day,” said Amber White, assistant manager at the Fast Stop on HK Dodgen Loop.) and you get a behind-the-scenes picture of what it’s like to own or operate a gas station/convenience store.
Ms. White says drive-offs have increased from one to about three per month. In one recent case, a brazen thief just looked at her and drove away.
Like others in the Temple area, Ms. White says gas sales don’t make any money, but can bring customers into the store where they purchase other products.
“If we were selling strictly gas, we wouldn’t be here,” said Ms. White.
One year ago, Trang Truong of Round Rock gave up her career as a semi-conductor engineer and purchased a Shell station and convenience store on Interstate 35 in Temple. Today, she shakes her head, wondering what she has gotten into. Pouring over her gross gasoline sales for three days, about $28,000, she figures after paying the gasoline supplier and credit card fees she made a couple hundred bucks.
“There is no way you can make money selling gasoline on credit cards,” said Ms. Truong.
Recently, she lost $52 to a duo who tricked her into turning on the pump by waving a credit card at her so she would activate the pump and then drove away without paying. Ms. Truong said she and a deliveryman chased the thieves to no avail.
“They use a brown trash bag and they cover the license plate,” said Ms. Truong.
Retailers say things changed for the worse several years ago when credit card companies quit charging their holders an annual fee. Instead, they assess the merchants about 2 percent of gross sales, $7 billion last year alone. Retailers say MasterCard and Visa account for 80 percent of the business and refuse to negotiate.
Now the convenience stores are supporting legislation in Washington - HR 5546, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act - that would allow merchants to organize and negotiate the rates they pay the credit card companies.
Carmen Fenton, a spokeswoman for John Carter, said the congressman who represents the Temple area has not yet stated a position on the bill.
“There are arguments on both sides and we haven’t heard them all yet.”
Ms. Fenton said the bill would not likely come to a vote this year.
A spokeswoman for the Electronic Payments Coalition said the fees are necessary to cover the cost of handling the transactions, and covering the risk of paying for stolen credit cards. She also pointed to “gas wholesalers that are squeezing gas retailer profits with unfair contracts.”
Up in North Temple, at 3rd Street Food Mart, Hakim Bahi said increased drive-offs have forced him to change policy.
“When we started, we turned the pump on for everybody,” said Bahi. “Now we don’t turn the pump on unless we know the guy.”
Bahi said he has a small volume store, but his credit card fees have tripled over the last two years. He won’t accept them for transactions under three bucks.
“That kind of credit card charges, they’re killing us,” said Bahi.
Across the street from Bahi, longtime gas station owner Garry Graham says he has found a solution to dealing with credit card fees. On Wednesday afternoon, Graham sat in his office behind a sign on the front glass: No credit cards. No debit cards.
